There are some words and phrases used constantly that grate on my ears and, in general, substitute for careful writing or meaningful expression. Herewith find my own, personal Top 10 Annoying and/or Overused Phrases.
Before I begin my list, I want to note that (1) I recognize that some of these are legitimate (at least according to Merriam-Webster) and (2) many originate with British English.
I like our British cousins. I watch a lot of British TV and movies. But they sure do talk funny. Or, as George Bernard Shaw allegedly observed, “England and America are two countries separated by the same language.”
Without further ado, here is my list…in no particular order:
- Think outside the box: This has become so trite as to have lost all meaning. If you want to suggest that we should think creatively, then either say that or try to be creative with your own new phrase (think past 14 billion light years, i.e. beyond the limits of the known universe).
- Sweet (as a standalone adjective): OK, I know this is just informal shorthand and I don’t really object when it is used that way. But this silly expression crops up even in network news stories who, supposedly hire writers.
- Kick-ass: If I hear one more person refer to a book, program, company, or whatever with the adjective kick-ass, I am going to take appropriate action (kick their ass). This is just as annoying and representative of just as sloppy and lazy a means of expression as Hollywood’s non-stop use of that venerable, Anglo-Saxon, four-letter work for sexual intercourse.
- Literally: I suppose I’m fighting a losing battle on this one. Even Merriam-Webster accepts literally as a hyperbolic substitute for virtually. However, even M-W wisely notes that such use is “intended to gain emphasis, but it often appears in contexts where no additional emphasis is necessary.” Which is precisely my point.
- Suck: Yes, the colloquial use of this worn-out word is in the dictionary, but it is still overused to the point of mere verbal lassitude. Too many people even try to qualify it by saying that something is “suckier” than something else. Don’t go there. (Yeah, I hate that expression, too.)
- Pissed-off: How did this phrase, which my mother would have clobbered me for using within her hearing range, become acceptable on prime time TV and network news shows? Everybody seems to be pissed off about everything these days, so saying so has completely lost its impact. Howard Beale’s “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” in the movie Network was far more effective.
- Bling: Doubtless, somebody will accuse me of racism for daring to say that I find it disheartening when common parlance absorbs words from the worst of modern “music” — rap or hip-hop or wherever this one originated. But I cringe every time I hear this one. I also dislike the goofy expressions that rise up from Southern white trash, too.
- Gone missing: How did this weird expression migrate from British English into common American parlance? I just wish it would emigrate right back and stay there. It doesn’t bother me when I hear it from the lips of a Brit (like I said, they talk funny, anyway), but our American news anchors and reporters have apparently completely forgotten that you can say “Smith is missing” or “Smith has disappeared.” The verbal construct “go missing” is simply illogical.
- Graduate: You might ask what’s wrong with that word. Nothing, in an of itself. But when somebody writes or says that “Joe graduated college” I feel like asking, “Graduated a college to what exactly?” No, regardless of what Merriam-Webster says, Joe graduated FROM college.
- Go to hospital: Maybe that’s an acceptable phrase when you’re in the UK, but here in the good ol’ USA, you go to THE hospital.
I could probably keep writing until I had 100 annoying and/or overused words and phrases, but that might literally bore me to tears, don’t ya know.
So, what words and phrases annoy the hell out of you?
16 Comments
February 4, 2009 at 5:43 pm
I agree wholeheartedly with the first one! That’s been over-used for a while.
Here in the South, the term ‘slam’ is used a lot and it drives me nuts. “We were slam-busy’ just doesn’t make any sense.
My personal favorite is calling the noon meal ‘dinner.’ I grew up on the West Coast, and dinner & supper both meant the evening meal. Lunch was the noon meal. Yes, Southerners argue with me. However – if the noon meal really WAS ‘dinner’ then brunch (breakfast/lunch) would be called ‘brinner’ (breakfast/dinner.) It’s not and I rest my case!
L. Diane Wolfe
http://www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com
http://www.spunkonastick.net
http://www.thecircleoffriends.net
February 5, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Transparency. I eagerly await the day when our government and banks and corporations are, indeed, transparent.
September 3, 2009 at 10:40 am
Had to chuckle upon seeing “literally” on your list, as one of my pet peeves is people using “virtually” when they really DO mean “literally.” Virtually means almost, nearly, not quite; it does NOT mean absolutely, but is all too often used in this context.
In short, both words are frequently used incorrectly and unnecessarily.
September 27, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Shouldn’t the title for this list be the “Top 10 Annoying Overused Phrases To Walt Shiel”?
September 28, 2009 at 8:08 am
In case you didn’t notice, this is MY blog and, therefore, what is posted on it is MY opinion. Sort of goes with the territory.
In fact, in the post I wrote: “Without further ado, here is my list…in no particular order:” Note that I said “my list.” And I ended the post with “So, what words and phrases annoy the hell out of you?” So, by all means, feel free to give us your own list!
Cheers!
Walt
November 10, 2009 at 2:24 am
“Not so much”,”Pretty Much”, “Basically” and “you know” are the ones that annoy me the most.
November 12, 2009 at 7:55 pm
“perfect storm”
December 2, 2009 at 8:49 pm
I got pretty sick of being told I “talk funny”. I talk *funnily*. I don’t know why you blame the Brits. I find the US is assaulting the language more, in a systematised way.
I’d like to add “systematized” to the list.
December 3, 2009 at 8:23 am
My use of “talk funny” was merely an intentional application of a common colloquialism and not meant to be grammatically correct. However, good old Merrian-Webster does list funny as an adverb along with funnily.
Don’t be so touchy, Ted. I never accused the Brits of assaulting the English language in general. What I did say — and stand by — is that too many Americans who should know better infuse their use of English in the USA with expressions and constructs that are inherently British.
And I never even suggested that there is a systematized attempt to subvert that language (if I had, I would used the word systematic). That would imply some kind of organized approach.
American English has been a dialect distinct in many ways from British English (both of which have many sub-dialects, of course). I’d just prefer it stay that way.
I fully recognize that Americans spell — and pronounce — many words differently than our British cousins. I see no reason for American me to complain about how British you spell the same word (e.g., systematize vs systematise). Such differences are part of why our American company Five Rainbows Services won’t accept an English-language editing project that is intended for a non-US audience. I’ve had to redo editing done by professional editors who work in non-US markets (England, New Zealand, etc.) when their editorial changes did not reflect standard American English.
December 23, 2009 at 6:58 am
I agree with the sentiment that lazy self-expression is never permissible. Are there not allowances to be made though for the fact that these are spoken expressons? It’s very difficult to regulate one’s speech so that it claims the ‘tightness’ of writing.
For instance, it took me years to stop using prepositions at the end of spoken sentences. And I’m a professional writer! You can’t expect people to hold themselves to high spoken standards – if for no other reasons than (1) you can’t edit something you’ve spoken (2) speech is effervescent.
Sorry! Bit of a serious reply to a fun post, I know. Be interested in hearing your thoughts though!
December 23, 2009 at 7:51 am
Of course our spoken use of the language will rarely be as precise as our written use should be. When I said these expressions “grate on my ear” I was not being literal in the sense that my complaint would apply only to the spoken language.
Unfortunately, all of the expressions on my list appear continually in print, including in publications that should know better and that I expect to apply higher editorial standards.
As for the spoken language, all too often people start talking well before considering what they are going to say…as if a short pause is somehow a worse sin than a poorly thought-out statement. The evidence is apparent when they fill their statements with “er…ah…uhm…well” and other cover-ups. Decades ago, I trained myself to eliminate those thought-stutters from my speech. I’d rather pause a moment than try to fill air-time with such fillers.
Naturally, some of the expressions on my list do crop up in my own spoken words (I don’t think they ever get into my written work) but, when it happens, I mentally cringe. And vow to do better.
January 6, 2010 at 12:50 am
“Traditional Media”, “When I was a kid”, “Terrorism”
January 6, 2010 at 9:33 am
It’s all a matter of personal opinion. But I guess I don’t really understand your list.
Traditional media is just a shorthand; I’m not sure what else you would call it.
For “when I was a kid” would you prefer “back in the Dark Ages” or some other euphemism?
Don’t tell me you prefer “man-caused disasters” to terrorism? Or do you subscribe to the silly notion that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter?
Anyway, thanks for sharing.
February 5, 2010 at 7:52 am
As a British (actually English) resident, I am very ready to accept that while pour two languages have gone their separate ways, Americans retain several things in their speech that we have not, and vice versa. American English is racy and inventive. Nonetheless it has spawned uses that perhaps even give some of you on the other side of the water pause for thought. I hazard that my list includes some horrors from both sides!
Here’s my pet list of things I’d die a happier man if I never heard or saw again:
1) ‘overly’, as in ‘he’s overly interested in that’, where ‘over much’ is the standard and classier phrase, though ‘far too’ is just as good. Equally objectionable is where it is used to replace ‘over’ in compound and phrasal verbs, as in, ‘He is overly qualified’ for the perfectly good ‘overqualified’. These were virtually unheard in Britain twenty years ago and now it’s everywhere.
2) ‘fun’ as an adjective.
3) The faintly ludicrous prissiness that imagines I necessarily have a toilet in my bathroom. I bath in my bathroom, wash in a wash room and relieve myself in a toilet or public convenience. Heaven alone knows what they think I get up to in a comfort break. Eat chocolate, I presume.
4) ‘Hopefully’ as a calque of the German ‘hoffentlich’, as in ‘Hopefully we’ll be there by four o’clock’.
5) ‘Presently’ meaning ‘now, currently’. Its traditional meaning of ‘soon’ is still current here in the UK.
6) ‘Already’ placed unidiomatically at the end of a sentence.
7) ‘Look’ used to introduce a statement with the import that if you disagree you’re clearly wrong, and possibly an idiot. Our late Prime Minister Tony Blair was addicted to this mannerism.
May 7, 2010 at 12:21 pm
I am very surprised that no one mentioned the following:
The use of “so” when you mean “very”;
“Yadayadayada”;
“Come to find out”:
“the whole nine yards”;
“Cut to the chase”;
pronouncing the letter “H” as “haytch”!
July 19, 2010 at 12:00 pm
The next someone says “throw him under the bus”, I will!